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It isn’t what they use to put the vessels together. Apparently in the animal model they’re simply using Dermabond, used everyday as the final step in closing the skin by myself and thousands upon thousands of other surgeons. It’s essentially a surgical glue.

However keeping the vessel lumens patent and holding them together temporarily while you apply the Dermabond appeared to have been the challenge. The team at Stanford has a new use for a previous polymer which they place inside the vessels to hold them together, and then when heated breaks up harmlessly and reestablishes the lumen between the two vessels.

I’ll be honest, this is pitched as novel, I’m not sure if other research along the lines of this preceded this announcement by the scientists at Stanford, but if something simpler than the current suture techniques comes into clinical practice by the time I’m done with residency…well, that will be exciting for me.